DayZ beta could launch this year

By Michael Jamias

DayZ is taking the zombie walk approach to indie development -- very slowly but also very surely. It could take roughly a year before the DayZ Beta version comes out. DayZ developers said the game's Beta version could be out by end 2014 at the earliest.

DayZ Beta is the follow-up to the currently available DayZ Alpha version being sold on Steam. DayZ Alpha has already sold 875,000 copies despite being a buggy and incomplete version of the world survival zombie MMOFPS.

It goes to show that a strong concept goes a long way in drawing in fans. DayZ developers plan to spend the whole of 2014 adding improvements and content, and DayZ Alpha owners will be asked to pitch in the bug squashing and game testing.

By the end of this year, if development goes swimmingly, players will likely discover a vastly improved DayZ Beta version that runs smoothly and offers a wide variety of in-game features such as hunting, cooking, customizable vehicles, and player created constructions.

The danger though with this long development process is that some fans may no longer have the patience to wait for the final launch version. Based on the rate of development, it won't surprise us if the MMORPG launches in late 2015 or even 2016.